Racial Disparities in Criminal Justice in Wisconsin: A Presentation to the Sentencing Commission

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Racial Disparities in Criminal Justice in
Wisconsin A Presentation to the Sentencing
Commission

• Pamela Oliver

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Plan for the Talk

• National overview of imprisonment trends
  1926-1999 (quick)
• Wisconsin overview of imprisonment trends
  1926-1999 (overall) and 1990-2003 (by offense)
• Interpreting disparities an overview
• County trends in prison sentences 1990-2003
• Dane and Milwaukee Counties 1998-9 prison
  admissions compared to arrests, by offense group
• Sentence lengths some VERY preliminary results

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National Trends The Magnitude of the Problem
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Comparing International Incarceration Rates
(Source Sentencing Project)
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World Incarceration Rates in 1995 Adding US Race
Patterns
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Nationally, The Black Population is Being
Imprisoned at Alarming Rates

• Upwards of 40 of the Black male population is
  under the supervision of the correctional system
  (prison, jail, parole, probation)
• Estimated lifetime expectancy of spending some
  time in prison is at least 29 for young Black
  men.
• About 12 of Black men in their 20s are in
  prison, about 20 of all Black men have been in
  prison
• 7 of Black children, 2.6 of Hispanic children,
  .8 of White children had a parent in prison in
  1997 lifetime expectancy much higher

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About Rates Disparity Ratios

• Imprisonment and arrest rates are expressed as
  the rate per 100,000 of the appropriate
  population
• Example In 1999 Wisconsin new prison sentences
• 1021 Whites imprisoned, White population of
  Wisconsin was 4,701,123. 1021 4701123
  .000217. Multiply .00021 by 100,000 22, the
  imprisonment rate per 100,000 population.
• 1,266 Blacks imprisoned, Black population of
  Wisconsin was 285,308. 1266 285308
  .004437. Multiply by 100,000 444
• Calculate Disparity Ratios by dividing rates
  444/22 20.4 the Black/White ratio in new prison
  sentence rates

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US Prison Admissions by Race
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The 1970s Policy Shift

• Shift to determinate sentencing, higher penalties
• LEAA, increased funding for police departments
• Crime becomes a political issue
• Drug war funding gives incentives to police to
  generate drug arrests convictions
• Post-civil rights post-riots competitive race
  relations, race-coded political rhetoric.?

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Imprisonment Has Increased While Crime Has
Declined

• Imprisonment rates are a function of responses to
  crime, not a function of crime itself
• Property crimes declined steadily between 1970s
  and 2000
• Violent crime declined modestly overall, with
  smaller ups and downs in the period

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Crime Trends

• Source Crunching Numbers Crime and
  Incarceration at the End of the Millennium by Jan
  M. Chaiken
• Based on Bureau of Justice Statistics data from
  National Crime Victimization Survey. Figures
  adjusted for changed methodology, shaded area
  marks change.

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Property Crime
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The Drug War

• Most of the increase in Black imprisonment
  imprisonment disparity is due to drug offenses.
• Drug use rates have generally declined since the
  1980s, while drug imprisonments have increased.
• Black adult drug use rates are only slightly
  higher than White (see next chart), while their
  imprisonment rates for drugs are enormous
• Among juveniles, Blacks use illegal drugs less
  than Whites, but Black juveniles have much higher
  drug arrest rates.

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Current Illicit Drug Use Among Adults (National
Patterns)

• 6.6 percent for Whites
• 6.8 percent for Hispanics
• 7.7 percent for Blacks
• 10.6 percent for American Indian/Alaska Natives
  (this is largely marijuana, rates for other drugs
  are lower than other races)
• 11.2 percent for persons reporting multiple race
• 3.2 percent for Asians
• Source 1999 National Household Survey on Drug
  Abuse

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National Black Prison Sentences by Offense
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National White Prison Sentences by Offense
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National Black/White Disparity in Prison
Sentences, by Offense
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These trends have major social consequences
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Offenders are parts of families communities

• The vast majority of offenders WILL GET OUT.
  Does prison help or hurt their likelihood of
  becoming productive members of society?
• Many have children, and all have families
• Families bear significant costs when a family
  member is imprisoned both from lost earning
  potential of the offender AND other costs (phone
  calls, prison visits etc.)
• Even short prison terms generate lifetime
  reductions in earning capacity
• Women are unwilling to marry men with prison
  records contributes to single motherhood

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Incarceration Exacerbates the Effects of Racial
Discrimination

• Next few slides are from research by Devah Pager,
  new PhD from University of Wisconsin Sociology,
  now on faculty at Northwestern
• This was a controlled experiment in which matched
  pairs of applicants applied for entry-level jobs
  advertised in Milwaukee newspapers

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Figure 4. The Effect of a Criminal Record on
Employment Opportunities for Whites
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Figure 5. The Effect of a Criminal Record for
Black and White Job Applicants
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Why Black Mens Incarceration Increases Black
Child Poverty
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Social Conditions, Political Processes, Crime,
and Corrections
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Changes in enforcement regimes can have major
effects through system feedbacks
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Wisconsin Prison Admissions

• Including Detailed Time Trends 1990-1999/2003

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National Wisconsin Imprisonment Rates
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Proportion of Admissions Involving New Sentences
(1991-9)
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White Admissions Status
Violation Only
New Sentence Only
Violation New
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Blacks Admission Status
Violation Only
New Sentence Only
Violation New
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(Possible data coding changes after 2000?)
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New only plus (new violation)
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Trends by race in offenses

1. First set of charts show trends in admissions for
   all offenses for 1990s hard to see patterns
   (quick)
2. Second set of charts show that probation/parole
   revocations were rising in 1990s across all
   offense groups (quick)
3. Rest of charts focus on new sentences to prison.
   More focused for sentencing trends.

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All prison admissions combined (new sentences
violations)

• Three-year averages in rates

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Admissions for probation parole revocations only
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New sentences. Two graphs for each race. One is
all new sentences, whether alone or with a
violation. The other is new sentence only.
They are generally pretty similar.
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Rising Other offenses are DUI, disorderly
conduct, disobeying traffic officer, child
support, escape, bail jumping
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Age Patterns for Imprisonment
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Conclusions About Wisconsin Prison Admissions

• Huge racial disparities, especially Black vs.
  White
• Probation/parole violators returning to prison
  were a major source of the rise in the 1990s
• Blacks showed steep rises in new sentences for
  drugs, while Whites showed no increase
• White new sentences are primarily for violent
  offenses, with a recent rise in other
• Black new sentences are primarily for drug
  offenses.
• The Black/White disparity is especially high for
  young people and drug offenses

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Interpreting Disparity Data
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Steps to Incarceration
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Contributors to Disparity

• Statistical artifacts rates calculated on small
  populations are unstable and can be distorted by
  non-residents. ? Keep track of residency status
  in data.
• Underlying rates of actual offending especially
  for serious offenses, most of the disparity is
  due to rates of offending. ? Examine larger
  problems of social inequality, discrimination
  outside criminal justice system.
• Discrimination (direct or indirect) in criminal
  justice system enforcement, prosecution,
  adjudication, etc. ?
• Individual-level conscious unconscious
  prejudice
• System-level processes that have disparate
  effects, especially those correlated with
  economic standing but not actual criminality.
• Examine each part of the system separately

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County Comparisons
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County Comparisons (1990s)

• Examine the 6 counties which have significant
  Black population
• Are also the 6 counties which send the most
  people to prison
• Milwaukee, Dane, Kenosha, Racine, Rock, Waukesha
• Balance is the rest of Wisconsin, outside these
  six counties

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Compare Counties Whites New Sentences
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Compare counties Black, new sentences thick
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Compare Counties, New Sentences B/w ratio
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Compare counties, Whites violations
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Compare Counties, Blacks Violations
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Compare Counties, Violations B/W ratio
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Counties Offense Race Trends

• New Sentences (All, includes combined with
  violation)

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Milwaukee
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Dane
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County Drug Disparities by Time
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Kenosha
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Racine
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Rock
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Waukesha
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Wisconsin Balance (The Rest of the State)
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Probation Parole Revocations Only

• Racial trends within counties

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Dane Milwaukee Allocating New Sentence
Disparities to Arrests Post-Arrest Processing
1998-9
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Explaining the next two charts

• Classify new prison sentences into the same
  offense groups as UCR arrest data
• Within offense groups, calculate ratio of prison
  sentences to arrests for Whites
• For Blacks, within offense groups, multiply
  number of arrests by the WHITE prison/arrest
  ratio. This is the expected number of prison
  sentences for Blacks given arrests if post-arrest
  processing is the same
• Generate the chart by taking the total difference
  between Black White prison sentence rates and
  allocate it to offense and, within offense, to
  arrest differentials and post-arrest processing
  differentials

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Milwaukee County Allocating Disparities to
Arrest vs. Post-Arrest Processing
72 of difference is due to arrest differentials
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Dane County Allocating Disparities to Arrest
vs. Post-Arrest Processing
37 of difference is due to arrest differentials
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Sentence Length
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Mean sentence Length by offense, race, sex.
Wisconsin 1990-1999.
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Black men, Milwaukee vs. rest of state 1990-1999
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White men, Milwaukee vs rest of state 1990-1999
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Mean Sentence Length for Males by Race
Milwaukee vs Other 1990-9
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What is to be done?

• This is not a sound bite issue.
• Factors include a combination of bias, real
  differences in serious crime, social political
  conditions
• Patterns are arising from the core structures of
  our society
• But there are steps we can take

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Oppose the drug war

• Treatment and public education are the most
  effective ways to reduce drug use
• Drug enforcement just increases the profits of
  illegal drugs, makes the problem worse
• Learn about the consequences of alcohol
  prohibition drive-by shootings, organized crime
• The largest racial disparities are for drug
  offenses
• Association of violence with drugs is due to
  illegality police enforcement

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Oppose tough on crime rhetoric

• Help depoliticize crime as an issue
• Distinguish among different kinds of crimes
• Take the crime problems of poor ( economically
  integrated) neighborhoods seriously without
  over-reacting and middle class panic
• Call for rehabilitation restoration for lesser
  offenses, not lock em up

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Revisit probation parole

• The vast majority of offenders are not murderers
  or rapists they will get out
• Insist the system focus on rehabilitating and
  reintegrating offenders, rather than looking for
  opportunities to incarcerate them
• NOTE Wisconsin has abolished parole, but has
  extended supervision

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Address root causes of crime

• Reduce poverty and deprivation through income
  transfers (e.g. earned income credit), training
  programs, living wages
• Provide social support, education, constructive
  alternatives for juveniles who are not doing well
  in school
• Need to break the inter-generational cycle caused
  by massive incarceration

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Address racial bias prejudice

• Racial discrimination in employment housing
  reduce constructive options
• Conscious and unconscious biases, perceptions,
  assumptions affect policing sentencing
• White fear of crime more sensitive to presence of
  Blacks than to actual crime rates
• Politicians play on Whites race-tinged crime
  fears in pushing tough on crime policies

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Racism and Justice Conclusions

• We cannot move from an unjust to a just situation
  by ignoring race and pretending the disparities
  are not there
• We cannot achieve racial justice by ignoring the
  real differences in serious crimes, economic
  social conditions
• We cannot achieve racial justice by treating this
  as somebody elses problem
• Politics caused the problem, and politicians need
  to be part of the solution

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Web Site

• Has copy of this presentation lots of other
  stuff
• http//www.ssc.wisc.edu/oliver
• Follow the links to racial disparities section